Is Your Data Safe?

It always comes to mind at this time of year, when I'm doing lots of rollovers, that many customers have their BUSTOPS data saved on the C drive of their computer.  So I wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone that you should periodically check with your School District's IT Department to make sure your BUSTOPS data is being backed up on a regular basis. 

If the data is on a server, you need to make sure it is being backed up by the IT Department through their daily or weekly backup procedures.

If your BUSTOPS data is on the C drive of a computer in your office, you need to make sure you are backing it up on a regular basis yourself. You can work with your IT Department to create a procedure to backup by copying the data to a server drive, a zip drive, or DVD, depending on their preference.  During the school year, a weekly backup is likely sufficient, however, when you are planning next year's routes, a daily backup would be best.

Regardless of where the data is saved, if it is lost and no current backup is available, it can be a lot of work to recreate the information.

Should you or your IT people wish to discuss this, please give us a call.

Hope everyone is enjoying this warmer weather!

Time to Spring into Action

It's been a long, cold winter for us, this year and it's hard to believe the end of the 2013-2014 school year is fast approaching.  And - it's time to start thinking about planning your routes for next year!

What types of changes are going to occur in your School District for the next school year?

• do  you need to eliminate a route(s)?
• are you closing buildings?
• will you be opening a building?
• are you considering re-configuring the grades in different buildings?

Bustops can be used to help plan routes for each of these scenarios.

Once you've booked your GoToMeeting appointment to upgrade your students' grades and then the rollover is done, you will need to:

• reassign students who switch schools to new stops for their new school
• import or enter your new kindergartners and assign them to stops
• optimize or adjust routes depending on your School Districts plans
• print letters, postcards or post new routes for parents
• print route sheets, student lists and maps for drivers and schools

Remember, we are here to help you as much as you need to get the information setup in Bustops for next year.  And, the more changes you need to make, the earlier you should get started.

Happy Spring!

BUSTOPS Holiday Schedule

Our office will be closed for the holidays from Monday, December 23rd, 2013 to Friday, January 4th, 2014. 

The office will reopen at 8:00 am on Monday, January 6th, 2014.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

from MicroAnalytics Staff

Support Talk

It’s almost time to start school and you have your routes ready to go.  Before you do another thing, take a moment to review what you should do with your BUSTOPS program to save yourself from potential problems. 

WHAT TO DO WITH BUSTOPS TWO WEEKS BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS…

The computer is your slave; you are not the slave to the computer. 

1.  Ensure the data is complete and print all reports needed. Think how upset you will be if your printer breaks or your network goes down the day before you need the report.

·         Before you start to print your letters or routes, you should review some of them in the Preview screen and compare the information to the information in your student and stops databases. 

·         Depending on the fields you are using in your reports, update commands within BUSTOPS may need to be run.

 2.  Keep a backup saved version of your BUSTOPS files.

 3.  Make last minute changes on paper:

There are always changes to be made.  Hand write your changes during start up on the paper reports.  Often times, changes are made and then those changes need to be reversed or changed again.  Save up your changes and input them in BUSTOPS shortly after school starts and things settle down.  This can save time and mistakes.

 

Following the above suggestions will decrease the rush to get things done, which in turn helps prevent problems.  With these pointers in mind, we wish you all the best in the new school year!

Planning

Just a friendly reminder to everyone - if you haven't booked an appointment yet to advance your grades in BUSTOPS so you can start planning your routes for the 2013-2014 school year, you should do so now.

The next 6-9 weeks will fly by and it will be time for the first day of school before we know it.

Have a safe and pleasant summer everyone!

Safe Guard Your Data

I wanted to remind everyone that you should periodically check with your School District's IT Department to make sure your BUSTOPS data is being backed up on a regular basis.

If the data is on a server, you need to make sure it is being backed up by the IT Department through their procedures.

If your BUSTOPS data is on the c drive of a computer in your office, you need to make sure you are backing it up on a regular basis yourself.  You can work with your IT Department to create a procedure to backup by copying the data to a server drive, a zip drive, or to CD or DVD, depending on their preference.

Regardless of where the data is saved, if it is lost and no current backup in available, it can be a lot of work to recreate the information.

As always, if you or your IT people wish to discuss this, give us a call.

Hope everyone is enjoying Spring so far!

Time to Start Planning

Now that Spring is here it's time to start thinking about a game plan for getting ready for the 2013-2014 School Year routing.

If you haven't already setup a GoToMeeting appointment to get your students' grades advanced, you need to think about when that needs to be done.

Once the grades are advanced you need to:

• reassign students who switch schools to stops for the new school
• enter your new kindergartners and assign them to stops
• adjust the routes for new stops
• print reports - updated route sheets, updated driving directions, send out letters or post cards to students, or create a file with information to be posted in the newspaper or on your School District's website, etc.

If you are comfortable with this process from previous years, call and book an appointment when you normally do.

If you are new to using Bustops or if you are opening, closing or moving locations of buildings this school year, you can always call us to discuss the steps specific to your situation and the timing of when you should begin getting ready.

Happy planning!